A continuation of the rally in the Irish and international markets in recent days helped push the ISEQ up 0.55 per cent yesterday. It closed the day 30.66 points stronger at 5,628.21 as it copperfastened the gains of recent days.

AIB was the stock of choice yesterday, dealing up around 3.5 per cent on the day. It picked up 38 cents yesterday to finish the day €12.88 with more than 3.2 million shares changing hands in Dublin. Bank of Ireland, which rallied in the morning and traded as high as €10.90, gave back much of its gains later in the day. Nevertheless, it managed to hold on to around 1 per cent of its gains to close 11 cents stronger at €10.55 with more than 3.5 million shares traded.

Among the other financials, Irish Life & Permanent also enjoyed some strong gains. It notched up 45 cents to €12.65 on modest volumes of just under 250,000 shares traded. Despite strong interest, with more than a million shares changing hands, First Active slipped back three cents to €3.22.

Among the industrials, CRH gave up a lot of its gains of recent days. It dropped back 62 cents to €18.60 with just more than 700,000 shares traded. Ryanair put in a decent performance, trading 11 cents higher to €13.42. Smurfit picked up one cent to €2.52 with more than 1.5 million shares changing hands.

A number of the smaller stocks also enjoyed decent activity from the rally in the market. More than 750,000 Grafton shares were traded, pushing the stock up four cents to €3.20, while IFG Group picked up 15 cents to close at €3.25. Irish Continental was 30 cents stronger at €6.80.